


The Forest of Inaba

by Ashytrees



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mythology, F/F, F/M, For the most part, Humor, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, M/M, and weird magic happens, as in Yosuke and Yu are college students, little bit of an age bump, look i just wanted my yokai au and if no one is gonna do it well i might as well do it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 11:46:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9383570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashytrees/pseuds/Ashytrees
Summary: They say that monsters, yokai, wander the forest. They'll snatch up your children, and kill you if your foolish enough to enter their territory. Humans were not meant to enter their domain.Of course, it's all baloney to Yosuke. Probably why he's now lost in an largely unmapped forest without a compass. What a summer vactation.





	1. Chapter 1 - The Forest

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first fan fiction ever and of course it's the result of stress at school.  
> What else would cause this.
> 
> Bascially, run down, this is an AU where everyone except Yosuke is a yokai (or other creature, but mostly yokai), because Yosuke is ~~lame~~ special like that.  
>  Some things, such as upbringings and backstories have been changed to adjust the story (for example, Yosuke's parents are from Inaba in this story).
> 
> Advanced sorry if anything seems too ooc, I haven't watched a playthrough of Persona 4 (im poor okay) in a long time, so I skimmed over the dialogue scripts to get a feel for speaking patterns.
> 
> This is unbeta'd too we die like men here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternate Chapter Title: _How to Almost Die Twice in One Day_ , by Yosuke Hanamura

This was his worst idea yet.

Yosuke staggered through the maze of trees, ducking to avoid the occasional low branch that would make his day even worse than it already was (and he’d rather not get another bruise on his forehead). God, he must have been wandering around for hours by now. It was morning when he left, and now the orange light of the setting sun was piercing through the dense trees. He would appreciate the glow it created around them, if the sun didn’t blind him through the open spots. The sight has been like that for a while by now, and it started to frighten Yosuke. The light seemed to dim ever so slowly when he rested, and the rays changed their angle ever so slightly when he started walking again. Nighttime was near, and nighttime meant that bears would come out to hunt. And Yosuke wouldn’t exactly do well against a hungry bear in the dark.

_Or against a yokai._

He slightly groaned at the intruding thought, a reminder to himself as to why he even went into the dumb forest in the first place. What a way to spend his summer vacation, wandering aimlessly around a largely unmapped forest looking for stupid, fictional creatures that were probably shadows playing tricks on drunkards’ eyes.

In the early spring of that year, Yosuke moved to Inaba from Tokyo for college. Its university wasn’t bad by any means; it fit the criteria of what he wanted. The only problem was that it was in a rural town. Away from the city. _Very_ far away from the city. The opposite of what he wanted.

His parents were both from Inaba, and they spent from elementary school to the end of collage in the town. It was probably due to that fact and nostalgia that they wanted their son to continue the tradition of going to Inaba University. Yosuke tried to argue against them, stating that he would be happier in the city, but when your parents are the ones paying for your tuition, it becomes a one-sided battle. Normally in favor of the ones handling the money.

It could’ve been worse if he thought about it; his parents are paying for his living expenses too. He was living in a studio apartment, but really, it was fine for a single college student.

But Inaba was extremely boring when you’ve come from a big city like Tokyo. All it had of interest was the flood plain, the beach, and the big, damn forest that surrounded the area. But, he guessed that the forest was quite interesting, if you spent time listening to the folklore surrounding it.

The first thing Yosuke noticed upon moving to the town was the overwhelming belief in the area about the existence of yokai. Practically every child, teenager, and adult in town believed that the creatures lived in the Inaba Forest, and practically every old person would take the time to recite folktales from outside their homes, drawing in crowds of children to sit down and listen. Eventually, Yosuke took the time out of his day to listen from afar to these tales.

Surprisingly, listening to these stories eased some of the boredom that he had; they were quite interesting, but they didn’t have the intended effect on him as they would on the townspeople. If he had to choose his favorite, it was probably the dragon in the river, which would lie in wait for an unfortunate swimmer to end up going too far downstream, and then get pulled under by the creature as its next meal. Dragons are the coolest mythical creature, in Yosuke’s opinion. But the story about crow that would sweep up newborns from their unprotected cribs in the middle of the night, and then proceed to fly high into the sky to drop them so that once the baby hit the ground, it would be able to eat the innards, did win points for that morbid factor. The kitsunes also should get some mention, if only for the classic factor. They were the basic, common seducers of humans, but kitsunes are okay.

Yet, embarrassingly enough, after listening to these stories long enough, he started to believe, just a little, that something unnatural did exist in the forest.

Perhaps the idea that this town had to have at least something interesting played a role in his sudden belief. That’s what Yosuke told himself, but eventually, he started eyeing the forest from his window. At first, it was every now and then, but it eventually progressed into an everyday thing. One time, when he was working on his assignment late at night, he looked through the window for a minute or two. He could’ve sworn that during that time, he saw something move away from the trees, but nothing else happened. Looking back on it now, it was probably a wild animal, but, it still freaked him out.

During school, he came to know another boy named Yu Narukami, who also moved to Inaba around the same time as he did, and he came from Osaka. Although their first meeting was embarrassing (Yosuke fell into a trash can while biking to school, and Yu was the only one passing by who stopped to pull him out), they became quick friends. He was a strange person; if his unnatural gray hair didn’t cut it for strange, his personality probably would. He had quite of a…interesting sense of humor (if you could call it that) and even held a slightly sarcastic tone in his voice as he spoke to others. He was a loner, quiet and even cold at times, and honestly Yosuke didn’t know how they even clicked. They were practically polar opposites. Yet they stayed close, and he may have formed a little of a crush on Yu during their time together.

Not that he would admit it, he doesn’t like boys like that. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just not his thing. And it was a friendship crush anyways. Yu was very attractive and had a mysterious air around him that attracted both girls and boys alike, but it didn’t affect Yosuke in the “love” way. Just in the very close friend way.

Yeah. That was it.

He did ask Yu on various occasions about his thoughts on the yokai folklore, but he always gave him the same answer. A shrug, a far off look, and then he would continue to do whatever he was doing in the moment. It frustrated Yosuke, but he supposes that he shouldn’t really expect much of an answer from another city dweller like himself.

When summer came around, Yu suddenly disappeared, probably off to enjoy his summer vacation at home, and Yosuke ended up friendless in the town. Sure he had the occasional acquaintance here and there, and he could hold a conversation for a while with some of the adults, but no one stuck around him for long. He reasoned that he was unpopular due to his awkwardness and clumsiness, and his habit of putting his foot in his mouth definitely didn’t give him any points with the girls. It was lonely in the town without his only real friend, and he hated it. And he was bored. Two weeks into summer vacation and he already used up all of his excitement on the “sights” that Inaba had to offer.

All, except the forest. And then it came to him.

The forest was infamous around here, and if a yokai did exist and he got a picture of it…

Boom. Instant fame. And even if no yokai did exist, he would get bragging rights for even going into the forest and surviving the “deadly yokai”. That’s got to attract some of the ladies.

It was perfect and it gave him something to do. And, with a silly grin on his face, he started gathering supplies for a simple walk through the forest. His camera, some snacks, an extra pair of shoes and socks, some tissue paper, a first aid kit…he was preparing quite a lot of stuff. But even with the likely possibility that yokai did not exist, a forest still was unpredictable. And his parents didn’t raise an unprepared kid!

During the last week of July, on a day where the daytime heat was at its lowest, he ended up standing in front of the entrance to the forest. Up close, the trees were taller than he thought; it almost seemed like they reached the heavens when Yosuke tilted his head up to look. He then slowly looked around the area. He spotted no signs of a townsperson, but then, who would even want to be near a cursed forest in the first place. _Except him_ , he thought. _But, hey, that's fine._ His relief did not exactly come from the fact that he didn’t want anyone to stop him, but because anyone who saw him could tell that he was shaking really badly. The very premise of this forest’s infamy was childish, but knowing that he was still going to enter a “cursed” forest was unnerving to say the least. He tapped the ground nervously, and took a deep breath. Yosuke closed his eyes, and after a minute, he hesitantly stepped into the forest. And he waited.

The only thing he could hear were birds. He slowly opened his eyes, and all he could see ahead of him were lush, green trees. No man eating monsters, he took note of this with relief. He turned around quickly to look back at the town. It seemed far away from here, but he must continue on. After all, he spent time preparing for this. His body was tense from the anxiety he was feeling, but he told himself that it was only a quick walk. He’ll be back in Inaba victoriously by sundown.

That would’ve been the case if he remembered his fucking compass.

He found out about the missing compass once he rummaged through his pack after an hour or so of walking. And once he did, he freaked out. The forest was unmapped, so bringing a map would’ve impossible. That compass was the only way for him to find his way out in relatively good time, and now it’s sitting on his coffee table, taunting him from afar.

And that’s why he was now still suffering through this accursed forest. He had already bumped into many trees, been hit by sudden materializing branches, tripped over rocks, and been scared by the noise of his own shoes stepping onto branches. But the one thing that had Yosuke feeling like both shit and the luckiest person in the world, was the fact that he had not seen a single yokai.

He did come into this forest mainly because of folklore, but then again, what was he really expecting? The forest is like any other forest; a shit ton of trees and the occasional rodent or bird.

But even the birds and the rodents were disappearing as the night approached, done with the day and returning to their homes in the trees and in the ground. If only Yosuke could do the same thing, he was really looking forward to eating from that new place—

A loud “caw” ripped through the air, shattering the silence that once filled the forest. And the sound was loud enough to cause Yosuke to lose balance and fall right on his ass. He groaned in pain, and looked up with a nasty look on his face. He could see the sky nice and clear due to a wide opening in the foliage, and playing in the sun’s rays was a single crow. Or raven, he can't tell the difference. _Strange_ , Yosuke thought. _You’d think that all of the birds would be in their nests by now. But a crow, i think, is supposedly smart bird, or at least, mother told me that. It probably knows whatever the hell that it’s doing. I suppose it also knew what it was doing when it scared the crap out of me_ , he added bitterly. He got up and rubbed where the impact hurt him the most. He should start walking again, unless he wants to be a nice snack for some bear out there. Looking around, he noticed a sort of path, where the trees parted. How strange. He hadn’t noticed that before, and probably would’ve walked right pass it if it wasn’t for the bird. Thinking about it, it would be best if he went down there. After all, a path like this should be manmade. Even if it wasn’t Inaba that the path led to, it would a human settlement of some sort. Sighing and adjusting his pack, he started to walk down the path. God, he was all dirtied with mud and so, so tired, and he really needs to use a bathro—

Yosuke could barely choke out a sound as the air was knocked out of his lungs. Something rammed into his back, _hard_ , and instinctively he crossed his arms in front of his face, protecting him from a face plant into the dirt. Before he could even catch his breath, a weight was applied to his back, forcing him to lay low to the ground. Trying to move his lower half up, or even struggle, led to something _sharp_ to dig into the skin on his lower back, and he was left helpless on the forest floor. Trembling at the fact something big was holding him down and from the burning feeling left in his lungs, Yosuke coughed and dared to turn his head around to catch a glimpse of his attacker. He inhaled shakenly once he saw what hit him, or rather, who hit him.

The first thing he noticed where large, obsidian black wings. The sun’s rays hit the back of his attacker, causing the wings to stand out against the dimming sky, which would’ve hidden them from sight. The next thing he noticed was that those wings were attached to a _human being._

Or…was it a human being? No, on second thought, the man (or at least, the apparent man) did not have human arms or legs. Their limbs ended with sharp talons, one of which was currently holding Yosuke down, and their thighs and arms were covered with ruffled, messy feathers, the same glossy, dark color of his wings. Their clothes…looked extremely out of place. Yosuke may not be a master at history, but he’s pretty damn sure that what the bird-man was wearing was a yamabushi outfit. _Wait, a bird man wearing yamabushi garb? Isn’t that what a tengu is supposed to look like? A tengu is a…fuck!_ Yosuke felt his heart rate increase at the revelation that he’s either facing an extremely talented cosplayer or an actual yokai. Said person was staring at him with a rather unamused face, perhaps even disgust. Yosuke had to get out of this situation, now, but in the position he was in, there wasn’t much he could do except…talk.

_Yeah, a peace talk, like that’s gonna help you idiot._

But what other option did he have? He cleared his throat and tried to speak. He couldn’t keep the stutter out of his voice, and he’s pretty damn sure he peed his pants by now.

“H-Hey there…um, ma-man, u-uh, look you don’t have to do whatever it is that you’re pl-planning…I, um, I mean no ha-harm, I’m just trying to find a way out of here, so pl-please, oh god, please let me go! Ggh, do you even speak Ja-Japanese? Ooh…I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonn—“

The talon that was resting on his back lifted up and repositioned itself quickly to the back of his neck. It pressed down harshly, and he could feel the rough texture of the foot applying pressure to the sensitive skin. Yosuke’s voice was cut off with a squeak, his head forced away from the tengu and into the dirt. Yosuke’s body shook even more, and then the tengu spoke.

“Shut up. Do you humans know anything else other than begging for your lives? It’s pretty funny, but it gets boring after a while.”

So the creature could speak Japanese. Yosuke didn’t know if this fact was relieving or scary, but he was yanked out of his thoughts when the tengu applied even more pressure to his neck, forcing out an exhale. He felt something grab his clothes, and he was flipped over quickly. The talon quickly relocated itself to his chest, and then the tengu kneeled down, coming face to face with him. The creature had messy black hair (does he even take care of himself?) and his cold, gray eyes bored into Yosuke’s. He stared at him for a couple seconds, the only sound left in the forest being Yosuke’s labored breathing and soft, shaky whines. His mouth then twisted itself into a sneer, and his eyes seemed to light up with amusement.

“Maaaaan, I love seeing faces like yours right now, you know?”

The tengu let out a snort, and moved his leg to Yosuke’s right side. Yosuke tried to use this chance to escape, but the yokai plopped down on his knees, entrapping Yosuke between them. His hands grabbed Yosuke’s neck and slammed his head down into the dirt. With his hands still gripping the skinny neck, the tengu flashed him a sick smile.

“Hey now… I’m afraid you are going to have to die, human. Nothing against you except…ah, actually, yes everything against you. But hey, if you don’t struggle, this will be over quickly for you! Painless for the most part!” He laughed, and his grip tightened on Yosuke’s neck. Yosuke let out a strangled sob, and felt the sharp talons threatening to pierce his thin skin. He tried to clear his thoughts; he had to get out of this alive somehow. He then remembered that the tengu relocated himself in such a way that one, certain area was left exposed. And then, with all the strength he could muster, he kneed the yokai hard in the crotch.

Yosuke wasn’t even sure if tengus even had dicks, or anything sensitive that would be affected by a nice strong strike to the area, but it did get a much needed reaction out of the creature. The tengu screeched and fell over to the side, releasing his grip on Yosuke’s neck. Yosuke quickly reacted, struggling to catch some air. He pushed the tengu off him with his knee and elbow, and then jumped up onto his feet. He caught his breath for a moment, harshly breathing in and out. The tengu was groaning and squeaking in pain, which meant that Yosuke must have either hit him in the family jewels, or he just hit him pretty hard. Yosuke basked in the temporary pride that came with overpowering his attacker, who did have the upper hand just a moment ago, but then realized that he has to start moving before the yokai could recover. He shifted around his feet quickly and suddenly, looking around nervously, trying to find a good escape route. He then saw the path that he originally was taking before the tengu struck him, and he ran down the dirt path, knowing his life depended on it.

He has never had to run this fast in his life before. Then again, a murderous tengu hell-bent on killing him never chased him until now. _Shit_ , Yosuke thought, as he stumbled a little down the continuous path. _If this path doesn’t have any turns eventually, then I’m fucking done for. I got a good a good start, but hell, he can fucking fly! I can’t outrun a bird! Shit!_ His legs were burning and aching, desperately needing rest, but Yosuke forced himself to keep going. Looking at the trees go by him, he tried to find an opening wide enough for him to fit through. _I can do this, c’mon… Just a little more and I’ll run into the trees. That’ll throw him off fo—_

For what had to be the hundredth time that day, he slammed into a tree. Except this time, this “tree” made a yelping sound and fell victim to gravity with him. Yosuke grabbed the creature to get a grip, only causing the two to roll together down a small slope that ran into the trees. His hand slammed onto a rock, and he let go of the other in pain, rolling further away from the creature before his body skidded against the dirt to a stop. He laid on the ground in pain and groaned, inhaling a cloud of dust and coughing harshly. He forced himself to look up to see what he fell down with. The other figure also groaned and coughed, but managed to support themselves up with their arms. They looked at Yosuke, and Yosuke felt the air leave his lungs once again.

A human. A honest to god human. Their hair was an awfully familiar light gray, and it was laced with dirt from the rough trip down, and their face and clothes were a little roughed up, but every part of them was human. Yosuke could’ve cried in relief right then and there, if he didn’t hear the sound of a crow cawing faintly. His eyes widened in fear, and he tried to move from his spot, only for his arms to collapse under his weight. That ride down caused him to hit his arms pretty hard against rock, enough to make them too weak to be useful.

The human got up and rushed to his side. Yosuke got a better look at the human now that he was at his side, seemingly looking for any signs of injury on him. Looking at his quite stunning face and locking eyes with the other’s, Yosuke froze in shock. There was no way in hell, but looking at his face, the boy was…Yu.

“Y-Yosuke?” Yu’s gentle gray eyes widened in shock at the realization that he was facing his friend in the middle of an isolated forest. “What are you doing here?”

“I-I,” Yosuke shared the same shock that his friend had, “I should be asking you the same thing!”

Before either of them could recover from their initial surprise, Yosuke heard an even louder “caw” than before ring throughout the air. Yu’s head shot up at the sound, and he turned around to face the source. Yosuke opened his mouth to tell him that they have to run, only Yu to interrupt him.

“Don’t move, and don’t speak. Do that and you’ll be okay,” he lowered his voice into a whisper.

_Wow, Yu’s voice is really nice, I haven’t heard him in a while…_

Wait, fuck, it’s nice just not in that way—

A crow broke through the trees and spotted the both of them. Shit, shit, shit, he was done for. At least he would die next to Yu, who was actually looking pretty fine today—

_Yosuke stop that!_

The crow dove near the silver haired boy before transforming into the tengu that he met before. He stumbled a little forward after landing, enough to be located a couple centimeters from Yosuke’s head. However, the creature didn’t even look down at him; instead his focus was on Yu.

Wait, how could he miss someone in plain view? Not that he was complaining, but now Yu was in major trouble.

“What’s up, Adachi-san?”

_Excuse me. What._

The tengu was heavily breathing. Seems like he was still feeling the effects of Yosuke’s hit, which caused Yosuke to stifled a “hah” that was threatening to come.

“I…hah… Hello Yu-kun…ggh…”

“You’ve seen better days. Is your age catching up to you now?”

“H-Hey! Says you, you’re practically covered in dirt!”

He can’t believe this. Not only is the tengu apparently blind at this point, but Yu and the tengu are having a nice conversation with each other, like they were best buddies. It wasn’t like the tengu tried to _kill_ a different human moments ago.

“Dojima-san is more active and healthier than you. I’m starting to think that you’re the old one at this point, honestly.”

“L-look! Shut up about my age, I’m actually quite young! But that’s not the point! I actually have very important news!”

_The hell is happening here?!_

“And?”

“A human is wandering through the forest.”

Silence filled the air, and Yu answered back after a moment.

“And you want to know if I saw him.”

“He went this way I believe. There’s no other way that he could’ve gone. Humans are pretty predictable in their thinking patterns, you know.”

_Shit shit shit shi—_

“I’m afraid I haven’t seen any humans, Adachi-san. I’m sorry”

 _Oh. Thank the gods._ He was relieved that Yu wouldn’t rat him out, but why was he even worried about that in the first place? Yet something seemed… _off_ …about the way the Yu talked to the tengu…

“What? But I could’ve sworn—“

“Why don’t you tell Dojima-san about what you saw? It’s getting dark out you know, I’m heading home soon anyways”

“Bu-But the human! What if it—“

“Don’t worry, it’ll probably die by sunrise. You should return, unless you’re asking for another smack down from Dojima-san. If you stay out too late, I can’t say for sure if the inagami or Dojima-san’s fist is going to get you first.”

“Eeep!” The tengu’s feathers puffed up in fear. “Al-Alright Yu-kun…I’ll return! Just be careful, alright. And you should be returning home soon, too!”

“Got it.”

The tengu sighed, and transformed back into a crow, flying through the trees and away from the dust path. Once he was out of view, the boy turned around and spoke.

“It’s okay. You can talk now, he’s gone.”

Yosuke let out of breath of air that he didn’t even know he was holding. Yu bent down to his level and gave a soft smile to Yosuke. God, his heart probably stopped for a moment.

“Are you okay Yosuke?”

“Uh, yeah, um just a little tired.” _A little tired with a shit ton of questions for you._

“As expected, from that nasty fall you and I took.” Yu let out a chuckle, and then changed the subject. “Humans don’t normally wander too far into the forest…So, very sorry about Adachi-san. He just wants to protect us, you know?”

“He does it in quite a way,” Yosuke grimaced as he remembered his initial meeting with the guy, and then realized what was off putting about Yu’s words.

_He speaks as if humans are a different species from him._

“Y-Yu!” Yosuke shouted, causing Yu to jump a little. He shrunk back a little after hearing how forceful he was, but, he had questions. And he needed answers now.

“You…you’re human right?” Might as well start with that first.

Yu stared at him, then softly chuckled and turned his head to the side, rubbing the back of his neck. Yosuke felt his body go stiff. If Yu looks pretty damn human like, what the fuck could he be?

“Technically yes.” He finally replied after some awkward silence.

“…Uh…dude, what does that mean?”

“I’m a half breed. Human mixed with kitsune. See?” And on cue with his words, a bushy silver tail appeared behind him, moving slightly around him so that Yosuke could have a better look.

“O-oh…” Yosuke was at a loss for words.

“Yeah. My mother is a kitsune, and my father is a human.” Yu continued. “I, um, didn’t tell you this for obvious reasons, heh…” He stopped to look at the forest. The sun was nearly down, and it was settling into nighttime.

“…We need to get back into the barrier.”

“The what?”

“The barrier,” he repeated, while standing up. “It protects us from the inugami.”

“I, uh…dude, I need to go home though!” Yosuke managed to spit out. Yu seemed to ignore his words as he bent down to lift Yosuke up and throw him over his shoulder with some ease. When did he get that strong?

“H-HEY!”

“Sorry, but for now, going home isn’t an option, not unless you want to be mauled by hungry packs of inugami. You’ll have to stay with me for now.”

“Excuse me!? Mauled!? Bro, what the hell is going on!?”

“Don’t worry.” Yu rushed through the trees, and Yosuke was quite impressed with his strength. He is over his shoulder, and yet he is still moving at a reasonably fast pace. He’s never seen Yu this strong before. Though, on second thought, maybe Yu was hiding his unusual strength to keep up the appearance of a human.

“I’ll explain to my uncle, I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Your uncle? Why do you need to—“

“He’s the protector of the village. And I’m staying with him and his daughter for now. Any foreigner in these woods must be known to him.” Okay, now this was getting to be too much for Yosuke. He needed time to process any of this!

“That’s great and all, but if he’s the 'protector', I’m pretty sure he’ll want me go—“

A howl erupted from the trees, and a creature jumped in front of them. Yosuke screamed upon seeing it, despite Yu’s pleas for him to be quite. The creature was unnaturally long, with white fur covering majority of its body. The head was black, and glowing red eyes pierced into his soul. A red marking glowed faintly from its head, and its jaw was twisted into a snarl, drool falling from its mouth. Yosuke could see the creature’s ribs, and he realized that it must be _starving_.

Yu lowered his voice. “That’s an inugami, and there are more of them in this forest.”

“What!? What are we goi—“

“Lower your voice. Your screams will only help the rest of the pack locate us.”

“S-Sorry. What are we going to do?”

“All we have to do is reach the barrier.” The inugami was circling around them slowly, eyeing them. “They can’t go any further than that. The only thing I can do is run, maybe pray.”

“Ggh…okay…” Not like Yosuke had much of a choice in the plan.

Yu’s grip on him tightened. The inugami’s shoulders were hunched, and its upper body lay close to the ground. Yu stayed in place, and Yosuke was about to hiss at him to run when the creature jumped. Yu rushed to the side, away from the creature, and then made a run for it.

He kept running, his grip on Yosuke becoming painfully tighter. This was becoming too much for Yosuke’s heart, and he nervously asked Yu, “How far away is this god damn barrier?”

“Not too far now, just a little more,” he replied shakenly. He then stopped suddenly, causing Yosuke to let out a strangled screech.

“Dude, what are you doing?!” A growl responded, and Yosuke’s heart stopped. Looking around, he realized that they were surrounded.

“Shit,” Yu clenched his teeth and tried to take a step back, only for an inugami to nip his heel, causing him to return to his original position. Yosuke could feel Yu’s body trembling in fear.

 _Fuck, it’s over!_ Would anyone even find his body? He’s just going to be another missing case, never solved, never found. No one in Inaba would care enough to notice his disappearance, and his only friend in the area was going to get mauled with him. And his parents…yeah they were kind of bossy and a little strict, but they still took care of him, and loved him. He would never be able to see them again and they would never know what happened to their son, and tears starting to well up in his eyes. _It’s over, it’s over, god, I-I don’t want to die!_

The inugami facing Yu’s back got in position, and Yosuke could see it move. He let out a sob as the creature jumped towards them—

Only for it to be knocked back by a blur of gray fur.

Yu let out a gasp as he turned around suddenly, pulling Yosuke’s sight away from the creature that attacked the inugami. And while he couldn’t see it, he could hear it let out a sharp, loud bark, unlike any dog he’s heard before, and his eardrums were left ringing from the sound. Yu bolted towards a tree due to the opening left for them and turned his back against it, sliding down and resting against it on the ground. Yosuke turned around to get a better look at what was going on, faintly hearing the words “I’m in so much trouble” leave Yu’s mouth.

The creature was larger than the inugami, possibly even half as tall as Yosuke. Gray fur covered its body, and he was only able to tell what color it was due to the moonlight. It was hard to tell any more than that since it was moving around so much, violently attacking the inugami around it. But he did notice that it had multiple tails. He tried to count them, but it was moving around too fast for him to count accurately. There had to be more than three tails, though. And the creature was using them to knock inugami away from its backside and… _them?_ It seems like it was putting itself in a position to protect the both of them easily.

Yosuke was stunned. He could only sit there and watch the animal wildly attack and move as the inugami jumped on it. Eventually, the creature got a good opening in the chaos and lunged, its large jaws snapping on an inugami’s neck. The others stopped their assault, and as the body hit the ground, they whimpered and ran away yelping.

There was silence. The animal brushed away the bloodied body with its paw, and turned around to stare at them. Yu turned his gaze away to the side, but Yosuke couldn’t do the same. The creature came close, and Yosuke’s body tensed, preparing him for the worse. It stopped, only inches away from his face. Its dark, tired eyes stared judgmentally at him, ragged breaths escaping its body, and then it suddenly threw up its head and pressed it against the side of Yu’s head. A growl emitted from its throat, and Yosuke could only squeak at the immense strength that the creature’s aura gave off.

“What the hell where you thinking Yu!” A gruff, exhausted voice came out of the creature. And that was the final straw for Yosuke.

He lost control of his body and fell limp in Yu’s arms. The last thing he saw was the bright moon in the dark sky, surrounded by countless stars, before darkness overcame him.


	2. Relief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm not creative when naming chapters but you can pretend that the chapter's name is _Adachi Gets Abused Too Many Times (Except Not Really) + Exposition_

Yosuke groaned upon regaining consciousness. Bright sunlight filtered through his eyelids, but they felt too heavy for him to open them for the moment, so he stayed in his rather comfortable position. He could feel that his head was on something soft, a pillow in fact. That would mean…he was on a futon. Then, that entire experience yesterday…that had to have been a dream! A wild dream, but how else could he explain the fact that he’s back in his apartment? Although, on second thought the futon did feel slightly different from the softer material he was used to at home, and the sun shouldn’t be hitting his face at this angle…

Yosuke tensed, gripping the blanket that was draped over him. He wasn’t home, he was certainly somewhere else. The sunlight suddenly dimmed, as if someone closed the curtains, and Yosuke could hear a slight scraping noise slide across the floor, moving at the same tempo as footsteps. The sounds came closer to him, and then stopped. Nervously, Yosuke opened his eyes to find the origin of the noise.

He saw the dreaded tengu from yesterday, on his knees, with his upper half hovering creepily over Yosuke’s face.

“Hey—“

Yosuke clenched his hand into a fist and struck up, causing the tengu to instantly let out a strangled scream as Yosuke’s fist connected with his face. He fell over, and covered his face with his hands as he rolled over to the side, cursing. Yosuke jumped out of the futon and fell on his ass again, shuffling frantically backwards into a corner. He was breathing rapidly, and he grabbed the nearest thing he could get, which happened to be an umbrella that was neatly put away in a container. Getting a good grip on the handle, he thrusted the not really dangerous weapon into the general direction of the tengu, who was still moaning and cursing a few feet away from Yosuke on the wooden floor.

_What the hell?! Thoughts ran wildly throughout Yosuke’s head. What is he doing here?! I thought he wanted to kill me?! Shit! I need to get out; I need to get the fuck out—_

He heard quick and loud footsteps come from above him and managed to tear his eyes away from the curled up tengu to the staircase nearby. A middle age man rushed down the stairs and stopped at the bottom, eyes frantically investigating the area. He was gripping the rail tightly with his right hand, so tightly that Yosuke could see the man’s arm practically shaking. The man had short, blackish grey hair, and a 5 o’clock shadow (do they have shaving materials in a forest?), and age was quite noticeable on his face. His clothing consisted of a kimono with a large, gray fur coat, and looking more closely at him, he must have been interrupted while dressing, since his clothing was all wrinkled, as if hastily put on, and a haori was carelessly thrown over his shoulder. But the _best_ thing of all, and Yosuke could feel the bitter sarcasm in his thoughts, were the two fox ears placed on top of his head. And on closer look, the fur coat wasn’t as much of a coat as much as it was tails.

How great. Just what he needed. More yokai.

Yosuke heard two more pairs of footsteps come down the stairs, and Yu appeared behind the fox-eared man, with tiredness and worry on his face.

“What happened?” Yu asked the man, and the kitsune’s worried face turned into irritation as he scoffed and turned to face Yosuke, glaring.

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask your friend over there?” He slightly hissed through clenched teeth.

He moved away from the stairs and walked over to where the tengu was lying down from pain. From the gray sea of tails, a small girl appeared, almost like magic. She clung onto one of the man’s tails and awkwardly followed him, stumbling while being pulled by the tail. Yosuke also noticed that she had small, brown fox ears also on her head, and a small, bushy tail behind her. She stared at him with wide eyes, still stumbling a bit, before burying her face into the man’s tails.

So this was a kitsune family’s household. Yosuke was already getting exhausted at the amount of information that was being thrown at him, and it was only morning.

Yu walked towards him, and he sat down next to him, lying back onto the wooden wall.

“So…what happened? We heard a sound that sounded like a dying animal.”

“…Oh.” He didn’t think that the tengu made that sound, but that wasn’t the main problem here. “I, um, he caught me off guard.”

“How?”

“He, um, he was hovering over me when I woke up, and I just…” He proceeded to make an uppercut motion to show Yu. 

“It was instinctual, you know? I didn’t mean to purposely hurt him.” At least, for the most part. He did feel a little satisfaction because of the pain the yokai caused him yesterday.

He noticed the older man was looking at him with an unreadable face. That was probably more unnerving to Yosuke than an angry expression if he learned anything from his mother. The kitsune then sighed and closed his eyes, bringing a hand up to his head to rub his temple a little, before returning his attention to the tengu. And then he proceeded to give him quite a scolding.

“God…Adachi, would you stop trying to freak out others you dumbass?” The loud voice echoed through the quaint house. Yosuke actually flinched, even though he wasn’t the one getting yelled at. 

_Should he really be using such coarse language when his daughter (Yosuke guesses) is around?_

“I-I didn’t mean to Dojima-san!” The tengu’s voice sounded stuffy. Shit, he probably hit him right on the nose. “I heard him groan and he moved a little, so I wanted to see if he would wake up!”

“By hovering over him like a creep?!” The kitsune’s voice became even louder, if that was possible. Jeez, the man looks like he’s going to pop a vein. And Yosuke could’ve sworn he heard birds flying away from the house, or maybe that was just the buzzing sound being left in his ears.

Yu noticed Yosuke’s confused expression, and gave a tired smile. “Ah, don’t worry. They always argue like this. It’s fine, really.” He sighed. “Just let them, throw off some steam I suppose.”

How did Yu survive like this for 4 months? In fact, he probably had to live with this for 5 months if you consider all of the time one needs to put into moving to a new area(specifically into a forest but he’ll ignore that for now).

The young girl, who Yosuke frankly forgot existed for a moment, popped her head out of the mess of tails and raised her voice. “Daddy, who’s that?” She pointed straight at Yosuke, arm shaking.

The man’s berating stopped as he turned his head sharply to look at his daughter with some shock. Did, did he really not notice his daughter there? He cleared his throat and lowered his voice to a nice, inside voice, stammering.

“I, uh, good morning Nanako, how are you?”

“I’m doing good Daddy, but…” She kept pointing at Yosuke, and he was starting to hate being the center of attention again.

Yu cleared his throat and opened his mouth, but Yosuke beat him to it. First impressions are everything, after all. “I’m…I’m Yosuke Hanamura, Yu’s friend.”

Yu nodded in agreement, and the girl’s eyes widened in curiosity.

“So he’s your human friend, big bro?” Wait, was this girl Yu’s sister? He never mentioned a younger sister before, but then again, he never mentioned any family before either.

“Yes.” _Oh C’mon dude, don’t rat me out like this! It’s obvious that almost every one of these creatures wants me dead!_ Yeah, he was exaggerating (and it’s not like he looked like any other yokai), but that incident with the tengu was scary as all hell. And he had the feeling that a lot of other yokai might, _just might_ , share the same ideals about humans.

“Mmm…” The girl hid herself back into her father’s tails, her ears slightly visible. Yosuke felt unreasonably defensive at her action. He’s not that scary! Well, at least, he likes to think he’s not that scary to children.

The man cleared his throat, and began speaking once more.

“I’m sorry about Adachi…Um, actually…We should start with introductions…”

Another awkward clearing of his throat, and he spoke again, this time with more confidence.

“My name is Dojima. I’m a protector of these woods.” His voice finally cleared up. Yosuke could hear the authority that leaked out of his voice. He was slightly uncomfortable, being near someone who clearly had the air of superiority. Yet he could hear a slight tone of fatigue in there, with the kitsune’s tone inching into monotonous territory. The gray eyes stared at him, slit pupils meeting his own. “I’m a kitsune, if you haven’t noticed, and you should thank Yu for telling me that you were his…human friend. Otherwise…” He trailed off, and Yosuke slightly bit his lip, knowing that he definitely didn’t want to hear the end of that sentence, for his heart’s sake. Dojima turned his gaze to the crouched down tengu, who was busy holding tissues up to his nose (where did he get those? This tengu is an enigma). 

“Adachi, introduce yourself!” Dojima barked, and the tengu jumped up and started speaking in a fast voice, sniffling here and there.

“Ggh…Hi! I’m Adachi, and I patrol the area around the barrier! My job includes making sure humans like _you_ don’t get any further into the woods, and to find and report any breaks in the barrier! I’m also the only tengu in this area, so it should be extremely easy to remember me!” He flashed a smile from under all those tissues shoved in his face, and Yosuke felt extremely uncomfortable being addressed in such an aloof way from a yokai that tried to kill him. Perhaps he should mention their first meeting?

Before he could, the small kitsune girl raised her voice. Yosuke still couldn’t really see her, but he could see bits of her clothing and the top half of her face. “I-I, uh…” She looked at Yu, who gave her a ‘thumbs up’ and made a small hand motion, trying to motivate her to continue on.

“…I’m Nanako…that’s my daddy, and Yu is my big bro…but not really…um. And Adachi-san is…a… um…freeloader?” Adachi let out a squawk and his wings flailed around wildly, hitting poor Dojima in the leg a couple times as the kitsune instinctually flinched at contact. 

“N-Nanako-chan!? I’m not a freeloader, even if your father says I am! I can pull my own weight around here!” 

“Yet you can’t even find your own place,” Dojima rubbed his forehead in mild annoyance. Adachi’s voice raised into a rather unreasonable pitch as he tried to counter Dojima’s blunt words.

“I’ll have you know, Dojima-san, that I just don’t feel comfortable living alone! I’m a fragile bird—“

Yu turned his focus back to Yosuke. “This is where I’ve been living for the past couple months. I’ve also been staying here for the summer, so, sorry for not telling you that.” He sighed a little, and continued. “You can see why I couldn’t tell you.”

“Yeah. I completely understand bro.” It made sense. Who would honestly believe anyone if they said that they were living in a forest with kitsunes? “So, what’s your relation to them?”

“Remember when I said my mother is a kitsune?” Yosuke nodded. “Well, Dojima is my mother’s younger brother. So that means Dojima is my biological uncle, which makes Nanako my cousin. My mother sent me here to spend my time in college, since she knew that this would be the safest place for me. With the yokai community being here, it would give me some refugee from the outside world so that I can, well, be a yokai I guess.”

“And Adachi?” He can’t see how the tengu fits into all this.

“He’s a family friend apparently. He can’t find his own place. Actually, it’s more like he doesn’t want to find his own place, so he lives with us. At the very least, he helps with border patrol.” Yu’s attention resumed onto the fighting pair.

Yosuke looked over at Dojima and Adachi. It seemed like they were caught up in their little spat to remember about him. He faced Yu again, and in a half whisper said, “Are you sure you should be telling me that much information? After all, I am human, and you’re…” His voice started to trail off as he realized that he was starting to sound insensitive. That’s a first, catching himself before he could be too rude.

Yu chuckled and responded to his unfinished question. “I explained to Dojima about our friendship at school, so I managed to strike with him a deal. You can thank me later; it was hell to make him agree to it. But basically, you can’t talk about this place to anyone, otherwise…” He trailed his sentence off in a similar fashion as Dojima did earlier and looked away for a while. Yosuke gulped at the silence left between them, and Yu resumed, keeping that trademark unreadable expression on his face. “That’s it. Don’t tell anyone in the village about this place. I don’t want to see anything happen to you, alright?” His gray eyes softened up, and Yosuke felt his heart skip a beat.

Yosuke nodded, and Dojima interrupted their conversation with another clearing of his throat. Jeez, how many times does the guy need to clear his throat in one day? And it seems like he wrapped up his argument with the tengu, as the man grumbled a little, cheeks puffed as if he was a child, but didn’t follow up with any words.

“Hanamura…was it?” Yosuke nodded, his focus back on Dojima. “Hm…I’ve made a deal with my nephew about you. It—“

“He already knows. I told him about it while you were yelling at Adachi,” Yu butted into the conversation.  


“…Oh, I see.” He turned around to face Yu. “Take him home then, you know the way.”  


“Right now?” Yu questioned, and Dojima grunted, exhausted.  


“Yes now. I’d rather not have a human here for a long time.”  


“But he must be hungry. At least let me take him out to eat before he leaves.”  


“Once you’re in Inaba, but not here.”  


“But, Dojima—“  


“I said—!”  


Nanako popped her head out of her father’s tails. How could Yosuke forget about her again? “Are you two fighting again?”  


Dojima stopped himself mid yell and awkwardly turned to face his daughter. “N-Nanako, I know you don’t like it, but you—“  


“I don’t want you and big bro to fight.” Nanako put her tiny foot down for emphasis. That was rather cute! “And the human must be very hungry. You can’t let him leave without food. What if he starves on the way there?” She looked horrified at the idea.  


Adachi perked up from his moping session and rejoined the conversation. How Yosuke wished that he could forget about his existence. “Don’t worry Dojima-san! I’ll watch over them and make sure the human doesn’t do anything stupid!” Yosuke noticed the tengu’s irises move upwards, toward the side after his statement, and following their direction led him to look at a modern analog clock that was hanging off a wall. _Wait, a modern analog clock?_ Yosuke thought that this place would be extremely old fashioned considering that they were in the middle of the woods, but they seemed to have more modern things than he thought they would. He could see a little of the kitchen from his position in the living room (?), and there was a black refrigerator there. And he was pretty sure Yu had a cellphone (although he never really got his cellphone number. Actually, why hasn’t he? Heck, that could’ve stopped this entire thing from happening!). Interesting.  


Dojima scowled at Adachi. “You just want to get out of patrol today.”  


“What? Sir, I swear—“  


Dojima sighed, interrupting Adachi, and leaned back against the wall in defeat. The tengu refocused back onto the clock, looking rather bored. “Fine. You can take him out to eat only in the central area, nowhere else. And Adachi—“  


“Sir, its 9 o’clock.” The tengu interrupted him with a matter of fact tone, a contrast to his flustered and nervous tone from seconds ago.  


_It’s scary how quickly he can change his tone of voice._  


“Shoot!” The kitsune started putting on his haori in a hurry and ran towards the entrance, awkwardly putting on his geta by hopping on one foot. “Adachi, I expect you on patrol by eleven sharp, I’ll be checking! And Yu, take that human out to eat and then take him home immediately afterwards.” He slid open the shoji and spoke once more. “Bye Nanako!”  


“Bye daddy.” Nanako responded in a solemn voice as he slid the shoji back closed, leading to silence to fill the house for what felt like minutes.  


“Well now, you should be heading out then,” Adachi broke the silence and he stretched and yawned, seemly having made a full recovery by the not-so-gentle nose bop. “I’ll watch over Nanako-chan until I have to go on patrol. Man, I wish I could have breaks every now and then…” It seemed like Adachi wasn’t going to move from his spot on the ground despite his promise to watch Nanako. In fact, he was just staring expectantly at both Yosuke and Yu with a bored and uninterested look on his face. Does he really want them out of the house that bad? At least he was “kind” enough to not outright say it.  


“Well, I suppose we should get going.” Yu stood up from his crouched position and walked over to Nanako, rubbing the top of her head, between her ears. “I’ll be back soon, but once Adachi leaves, you’ll be alone for a while, okay?”  


“Mmhm! I’ll be fine alone big bro!” Nanako has got to be the cutest child Yosuke has ever met in his lifetime.  


Yosuke got up from his corner and put the umbrella back where it belonged (it was ball ended now that he got a better look at it, a very efficient weapon) and walked with Yu out the door. Hopefully, he won’t have to deal with too many other yokai today. He’s beat tired, yawning as he followed Yu through the trees.  


“So, where exactly are we going to eat?”  


“The marketplace. Stay close, you’ll get lost in the crowd if you don’t.”  


“C’mon, there can’t be that many yokai in this forest.” Yu didn’t answer him, leaving Yosuke to his thoughts. There really can’t be such a thriving population of yokai in this area; it’s unreasonable that there would be such a large population for a group that’s supposed to be in hiding. Someone was going to find them eventually.  


Yu finally answered back after the moment of silence. “You’ll see Yosuke. You’ll see.”  


What an ominous tone. Then again, that was Yu’s trademark, messing around with people. Even now, Yosuke can’t tell if he’s serious or not. Might as well follow his advice. Yosuke sped up to catch up with Yu as he heard voices in the distance.  


\-----------------------------  


Holy. Shit.  


The market was buzzing with so many yokai, and Yosuke felt so, so out of place. He felt the need to cling onto Yu’s arm, but he didn’t, because that would be kind of weird for the both of them (mostly for Yosuke). Somehow, he managed to stay with his friend, and they both managed to push their way through the crowd into a small restaurant, stumbling a bit before scanning the place.  


They found a table isolated from the others, and Yosuke picked up the menu and started reading. Or at least, he tried to.  


He noticed Yu’s tail moving very slightly, and he wanted to ask how the hell it appears out of nowhere, before two iridescent green scaly hands slammed onto the table, making him jump and scream.  


“The hell?!”  


He looked up and saw the source of his latest heart attack.  


A girl, appearing around his age, with short brown hair was looking at Yu. She was wearing a green hoodie and plain shorts, and Yosuke noticed the horns that protruded from behind her pointed ears. They curved upwards and inwards, and were a plain cream color, almost like what you would see in a stereotypical western dragon, except with a much more elaborate pattern etched into them. From her back, a long tail extended from under her hoodie, almost hitting the floor, but curling upwards off of it. Behind her, another girl was checking a menu in her red hands. She had long black hair, and also had horns, but they were more nature-like; brown and twig looking, with flowers seemingly blooming from them. She was obviously much more traditionally dressed than the other girl, as she wore a kimono that looked like it had way too many layers for the middle of summer.  


“Yo, Yu! How ya doing?” The first yokai grinned and turned around to look at Yosuke. “Is this the human friend you’ve been talking about?”  


“Uh, yeah, Yosuke, meet—“  


“Chie Satonaka, earth dragon here! This is my first time seeing a human!” She straightened herself up and brought a hand to her chin, moving her head side to side, scanning Yosuke. In all honestly, Yosuke wouldn’t mind a girl sizing him up if he wasn’t in a strange place. And the girl’s slit pupils were really, really starting to creep him out. They were like snake eyes, and it looked really out of place on a human-like face.  


But she was still cute, he’ll give her that.  


“…Really? I expected him to be more…I don’t know, interesting?” She finally said, sighing. “His ears are rounded, and that’s about it.”  


A blow to Yosuke’s fragile ego. But what was he expecting from a dragon.  


Wait. _A dragon._  


Holy shit.  


This went from awkward to awesome!  


Actually it was still a little bit awkward and he should probably watch his mouth. He didn’t want to find out how many ways a dragon can kill someone.  


The other dragon looked up from the menu and turned around to look at Yosuke. Oh wow, she was kind of hot.  


“Oh!” Chie looked at her friend and smiled. “This is my friend, Yukiko Amagi, she’s a fire dragon. Pretty cool, if you ask me.”  


Yukiko gave a small wave and a quick smile, before returning her focus to the menu that she put down.  


“She’s not really a talker,” Yu added. “Anyways, Chie, we need to ea—“  


“Eat, of course! Hey, Yu, you wouldn’t mind if you…you know,” She whistled and twiddled her thumbs, looking over to the side. Yu stared at her, before he gave out a defeated sigh. “Yeah, I’ll treat you and Yukiko. You guys can get to know Yosuke better.”  


“Woohoo! Did you hear that Yukiko?” Chie jumped and slammed her hand onto the table again, causing Yosuke to flinch. He noticed that Yu’s mouth was covered by his arm, as if he was stifling a chuckle. He probably was.  


“Mmhm. Actually, I promised my mom I was going to help her around, so I should get going. But thank you Chie and Yu, for the offer. Goodbye guys.”  


“Oh alright, bye Yukiko.” Chie waved as Yukiko walked out of the restaurant and she disappeared into the moving crowd.  


Damn, this sucks.  


“She doesn’t take to being around strangers that well, don’t take it personally.” Yu refocused his attention onto Yosuke as Chie pulled up a chair. “Well, let’s actually order something for once.”  


Yosuke ordered a light breakfast (he wasn’t that hungry after everything that happened today and yesterday) and waited while Chie made small talk with Yu. It wasn’t until after the food was delivered that Yosuke remembered the question that he wanted to ask Yu.  


“Bro,” he started, interrupting whatever Chie was talking about (something about Yukiko he thinks). Yosuke tried to get out his question as quick as possible, before someone else tries to stop him again.  


“Tail!” Yosuke yelled, putting his hands on the table for emphasis.  


“…What?” Great, he looks like a dumbass now.  


“Yeah, we have tails. Anything else you wanted to note?”  


“W-Wait!” Yosuke coughed and composed himself. “I, uh, I wanted to ask about your tail. It just, appears out of nowhere, that’s all.”  


“…Oh. That’s simple. Kitsunes are shapeshifters and illusionists,” Yu started, making his explanation brief and simple. “I lack the ability to shapeshift due to my human blood, but I can make illusions. The tail never truly disappears, it only ends up hidden.”  


“Sooooo…that tail is always there?” Interesting.  


“Yeah, it’s just hidden in plain view when I’m out and about with humans.”  


“Speaking of abilities, what can humans do?” Chie joined the conversation, while shoving some beef into her mouth. “There’s gotta be something you can do that we can’t.”  


“Humans in general, or Yosuke? Because if we’re talking about what Yosuke can do, then I’m afraid there is really nothing to list.”  


“Hey! I’ll have you know—“  


“In all seriousness,” Yu continued, “I personally believe humans are more…adaptable, so to speak.”  


“Adaptable? Seriously, bro?”  


“It’s something, isn’t it?” Yu answered back.  


“Well, you did survive an inugami attack, from what I heard. I mean, you were with Yu and Dojima-san, but I’ll still give you some credit. It’s not easy surviving those yokai.” Chie continued munching on her meal. “Still, you guys were really unlucky. Or maybe the inugami are back to normal.”  


“Normal? Are you saying that there’s something wrong with them?”  


Chie nodded. “Yeup. Inugami used to roam around the forest every night, and not just one pack. Dozens of them.” Yosuke gulped. He could barely handle one pack; he didn’t want to see dozens of them anytime soon. 

“However, they haven’t been seen often lately. It’s almost as if something is scaring them. In my opinion though, it’s a great thing, as it’s now mostly safe to go out wandering at night now.”  


“Better safe than sorry, though.” Yu added. “If I hadn’t played it safe, then we’d probably be dead by now. Those creatures are quite unpredictable. But back on what I mean by ‘adaptable’, humans can tolerate more living conditions than yokai.” Yu steered the conversation back on track.  


“Hmm? Explain?”  


_Yeah, please explain how humans are much more adaptable than the, arguably cooler, yokai._  


“Well, I’ll use an example. Chie, you’re an Earth Dragon, so in the forest, you flourish as a species.” Chie nodded, snorting in pride. “However, if one were to put you in a colder area…your species would die out from the cold.”  


“Mm…that’s true…surviving winters in the forest is already a challenge with the snow.”  


“However, humans can tolerate both the temperature ranges presented in both areas. So yeah, more adaptable.” 

Chie’s eyes lit up at the end of the explanation.  


“Oh! I see! So there is something to an arguably weaker species.”  


“Thanks man.” Yosuke mumbled.  


“That and they’re more adaptable to change. Yokai were ran out by humans because we, generally speaking, are longer lived, and thus, are less likely to accept change. So in the end, humans advanced faster than us, letting them become the now dominant species on Earth.”  


“While we now have to hide away from the outside world.” Chie sighed and looked at Yosuke.  


“…Sorry.” Great, now he feels really bad.  


“No, no, no, it’s not your fault orange-head.” _Orange-head?_ “It’s just, you know…” Chie resumed eating her steak. “I want to see the outside world. But as a young child by dragon standards, I haven’t mastered disguising, so it’ll be decades before I can even explore human life. Which sucks…”  


“Understandable.” Yu said. “But I’ll still help you catch up with new inventions—“  


“Hey that’s right! Yosu—whatever!” Thanks. “You’re gonna help Yu gather information for me and Yukiko, alright!”  


“Wait, what?”  


“C’mon, you gotta!” Chie’s eyes were on him expectantly.  


“…Okay, but I’m not allowed to come back after this…” Yu nodded in agreement.  


“Pshaw! It’ll be fine. Yukiko’s family is related to the chief, so I’m sure she’ll be able to swing things to your favor…in fact I’ll go see her right now!” Chie jumped out of her seat and started to run out the door. “Thank you for the meal, Yu! And Yosuke, you’re not as bad as you could’ve been!” _Thanks._  


“…” Yu snickered as he waved at Chie.  


“Bye Chie, see you later.” Chie practically jumped into the never-ending crowd, leaving Yosuke and Yu alone at the table again.  


“…She’s, uh…energetic.” Yosuke stated. “Not a bad trait, by any means, but…uh…”  


“I understand. She’s not a bad person at all though.”  


“Yeah! I know that, it’s just…are all yokai so…” Yosuke struggled to find the right words.  


“Strange? Enigmatic?”  


“Yeah, that.”  


“I suppose so by human standards.” Yu glanced over at Yosuke’s plate. “You done?”  


“Yeah.”  


“Well, then we should get going.” Yu stood up and motioned Yosuke to do the same. “I’ll go pay at the counter. Stick with me alright? Don’t want the crowd to swallow you up.”  


Yosuke nodded. Dang, now that he was faced with the fact that he was leaving soon, he felt like he was going to miss the forest a little. It may have halved his lifespan due to stress, but it was a nice place overall.  


Then again, his futon in his air conditioned apartment sounded like the better option.  


\--------------------------------  


There was a slight breeze going through the trees, a welcome feeling with the summer heat.  


Yu had informed Yosuke a couple of minutes into the walk that they were outside the barrier. Upon seeing Yosuke’s worried face, Yu reassured him that the inugami were only nocturnal creatures, and they wouldn’t be out and about at this time.  


“Though…I can’t say the same about bears…”  


Yu just loved messing with him, didn’t he?  


“Hey!” Yosuke turned around at the sound of a familiar voice breaking through the sounds of the other animals. He saw the tengu from earlier (Adanchu, was it?) sitting on the branch of a tree, staring down at them, smiling in such a way that it almost felt fake. Almost.  


“Going back to the human settlement, Yu-kun?” He yawned and stretched, his clawed leg gripping the trunk of the tree for balance.  


“Yeah, can’t let Yosuke get lost again. Would bring too much suspicion to the forest if a human went missing in here.”  


“Ah, I see your point there.” The tengu looked up, lost in thought. “Ah…I called you out for something else…”  


“Perhaps you’ll remember it when I get back, Adachi-san.” Yu put a hand on Yosuke’s shoulder and turned him back around, and the two started to leave before a squawk left Adachi.  


“Ah! I remember now! Dojima-san wanted me to tell you something! And you too, human.” Adachi fluffed up his feathers, taking pride in remembering what he wanted to say. “He said, um, ah, he said that the human can come back, as long as he’s with you. Or something like that.”  


“I thought that he didn’t want me here,” Yosuke said to Yu, ignoring the glare that the tengu decided to give him. Yu shrugged at pointed out in a quiet voice. “Perhaps Yukiko worked her magic.”  


The tengu answered back, unaware of Yu’s side comment. “Ah…he doesn’t. But the chief of the village gives orders, and there was something about saying that a human who knows about the village should be allowed in as long as they don’t say anything to the outside world…blah blah…something about execution—“  


“Excuse me?! Execu—“  


“Thank you, Adachi-san, for telling me this. And give my thanks to the chief.” Yu interrupted Yosuke, and he gave a quick bow to Adachi.  


“Ahah, please, I’m just a messenger, there’s no need to thank me like that.” Adachi looked away, with a slight blush on his cheeks. “But, ah, just know that if he’s not with you, I am forced to run him off outside the barrier, so, yeah. That’s all.”  


Adachi jumped to his feet, only for the branch to bounce from the sudden shift, causing him to lose his balance and fall down into the dirt. He let out a little groan as he hit the ground, but he got up quickly, right as Yu opened his mouth to say something.  


“Ggh, ah, I should probably get back to patrol. Can’t stall for too long.” The tengu stumbled a bit, groaning a little bit more as he found his balance, before shapeshifting back into a crow and flying away into the trees, accompanied with the sound of him hitting a few branches, which lasted until they could only hear the faint sounds of slightly pained crowing.  


“…Is he going to be okay?” Yosuke asked, after a few moments of silence.  


“Yeah, that’s just how he is. He’ll live.” Yu started walking, and Yosuke followed, staying close to him.  


“So about that whole, message,” He started, while looking around at the scenery. The forest was much prettier when he wasn’t lost and running away from an oversized, murderous bird.  


“Hm. Basically it means that you can come back to the village if you want to. I know you’ll be much too bored in the town now that you’ve discovered us.”  


“And that whole entire, ‘execution’ part?” Yosuke gave Yu a worried glance. “He was messing with me, right?”  


“The yokai world is harsh,” Yu said without hesitation.  


“Bro! The hell!” Way to calm down his nerves.  


“Do you want me to lie to you?”  


“Mmm…” Yosuke decided to drop the topic. It’s not that big of a deal if he thinks about; just don’t mention the village and he won’t be beheaded, or whatever yokai do to kill humans. Although with his big mouth, it’s probably easier said than done.  


Both of them went silent for a moment, enjoying the faint noises of birds and rodents doing their morning business.  


“…I should probably give you my phone number now.” Yu stated after the moment of silence.  


“Yeah. In fact, why didn’t you do that in the first place bro?” He was starting to feel a little self-conscious. Was he just not a good friend at the time?  


“My uncle.” Yu answered. Yosuke gave him a look of confusion as he continued. “He’s just worried about the protection of the yokai here. It’s in the family, the job of a protector. And he’s not naïve to technology in the outside world. He knows phones can be easily tracked, so any conversation over phone or text about the forest, or even alluding to it, could end in disaster for us.”  


“…Ah.” That makes sense.  


“But, since you already know about this, I think it’s safe to exchange numbers. Just one ground rule,” Yu looked at Yosuke with a serious look in his eyes, tone rid of any playfulness. “Never mention the forest over text or call. If you want to discuss it, ask to meet up with me. Alright?”  


“Yes, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, bro.” It’ll be a little hard, but he’ll manage.  


“…You sure? I don’t know about that big mouth of yours…” The playful tone in his voice came back, along with the glint in his eyes.  


“H-Hey!” Yu snickered at Yosuke’s defensiveness. God, he took great enjoyment in this.  


“I’m joking, I’m joking…except about the rule.” Yosuke nodded. Looking away from Yu for a moment, he noticed that the forest was becoming more familiar. Upon seeing the entrance that he went through yesterday, he almost leapt with joy.  


“Alright, well, let’s exchange our numbers right now, seeing as we’ll have to separate now.” Gotta keep priorities in check. First numbers, and then bed at his nice, cool apartment.  


After the exchange, Yu turned around to start heading back into the maze of trees. “I assume you can get out of this forest by yourself?”  


“Dude, who do you take me for? The entrance is literally right there.”  


“You did forget about your compass…” He snorted a little.  


“That doesn’t count!” Yosuke was getting flustered as Yu burst into laughter.  


“Alright, if you say so…” Yu waved at Yosuke, and then walked off into the depths of the forest, leaving Yosuke to stare at the trees until the bushy gray tail was gone.  


He turned around after standing around for a while, and ran towards the entrance. Poking his head out to scan the surrounding area, he noticed that there was no one near the area. Expected, as the forest did have its infamous rumors to keep up. At least no one was there to ask him any questions. He wasn’t sure how he would respond anyways, especially with his exhausted mind. Waving his hand near his face in an attempt to cool off, he ran to his apartment. Opening the door, he looked inside, slightly nervous for no real good reason. Perhaps the fear that now he had a secret to keep was leading him to become more suspicious and careful. God, he never liked keeping secrets for this exact reason.  


His studio apartment was the same as he left it. Closing the door and entering the cooled room, he glanced at the coffee table.  


There was the cursed compass.  


If he cared more, or if he had the energy, he would probably grab it and throw it at the wall. But as it stood, he was dead beat tired. Looking at the clock on the table, he read the time.  


Noon. Good enough time to justify a nap.  


He unfolded his futon and laid in it, throwing his backpack to the side. As he lay in the quiet room, it finally started to fully settle in that yokai existed.  


How was he going to live a normal life after this?  


Groaning, Yosuke turned over to his side. At least this secret was pretty cool. He was probably the only human being who could confirm the existence of dragons, kitsunes, and other mythical creatures. But it was going to be a pain in the ass to keep this knowledge to himself.  


…Perhaps he should call Yu tomorrow, or maybe even visit the village in the next week.  


As exhaustion took over Yosuke’s mind, he huffed and turned over once more, finding a comfortable position to fall asleep in.  


_At least this summer vacation was going to prove not so boring after all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, school is horrid and I went over this chapter 100 times. And I'm still not too satisfied with it.
> 
> Next chapter is where things actually start happening. But hey, Chie was introduced. And that's pretty great in my book.


End file.
